NaNoWriMo Prep Week

Unit 1

Take Your Writing From Good to Great with Jennie Nash

Take Your Writing From Good to Great

Unit 2

Develop a Creative Mindset and Write! with Grant Faulkner

Develop a Creative Mindset and Write!

Unit 3

How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo with Grant Faulkner

How to Prepare for NaNoWriMo

Unit 4

Write Your Book: Start Strong and Get It Done with Jennie Nash

Write Your Book: Start Strong and Get It Done

Unit 5

Wired for Story: How to Become a Story Genius with Lisa Cron

Wired for Story

Unit 6

How to Tell Your Story with Andrea Askowitz

How to Tell Your Story

Unit 7

The Heart and Craft of Writing with Michelle Tea

The Heart and Craft of Writing

Unit 8

Overcome Writer's Block with Dave Ursillo

Overcome Writer's Block

Unit 9

How to Fulfill Reader's Expectations with Lisa Cron

How to Fulfill Reader's Expectations

Unit 10

How to Nail Your First Three Pages with Lisa Cron

How to Nail Your First Three Pages

Unit 11

The Anatomy of a Scene with Lisa Cron

The Anatomy of a Scene

Unit 12

Between the Lines: An Interview Series with Kelly Corrigan with Kelly Corrigan, Chip Kidd, Mayim Bialik, Celeste Ng and 13 more.

Between the Lines: An Interview Series with Kelly Corrigan
  • 32 hours and 31 minutes of class content
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Unleash​ ​Your​ ​Creative​ ​Superpowers​ ​with​ ​National​ ​Novel​ ​Writing​ ​Month

Everyone’s got a book in them. NaNoWriMo is all about getting that book out. If something has been holding you back from writing your novel—whether it be lack of time, lack of motivation, or just plain fear—National Novel Writing Month is designed to get your creative juices flowing and help you leap into your novel with abandon.

One part writing boot camp and one part rollicking party, National​ ​Novel​ ​Writing​ ​Month is celebrating its 20th year of encouraging creativity, education, and the power of the imagination through the largest writing event in the world. This year, NaNoWriMo expects more than 400,000 people will start a 50,000-word novel in the month of November.

CreativeLive is joining NaNoWriMo in celebrating diverse voices and encouraging everyone to tell their stories. We’re kicking off the month with an inspiring week of writing classes and conversations with some of the world’s most successful authors, who will inspire you and help you prepare for an amazing month of writing.

The week will feature:

  • Grant Faulkner – Executive Director of NaNoWrimo
  • Andrea Askowitz – Writer and Host of the “Writing Class Radio” Podcast
  • Jennie Nash – Author and CEO of Author Excelerator
  • Lisa Cron – Book Coach and Author of Story Genius
  • Sophie Littlefield – Celebrated Author of 16 Novels
  • Aya de Leon – Acclaimed writer of prose and poetry.
  • Rachael Herron – Bestselling author of the novel The Ones Who Matter Most
  • Michelle Tea – Author of over ten works of fiction and memoir.
  • Celeste Ng – Award-winning writer of Everything I Never Told You
  • Margaret Atwood – Author of The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Imbolo Mbue – Author of the New York Timesbestseller, Beholder of Dreams
  • Gretchen Rubin – Four-time New York Times bestselling author, including The Four Tendencies
  • Mayim Bialik – Actress and Bestselling author
  • Nicola Yoon – Author ofEverything, Everything, a New York Times best seller
  • John Grisham – Bestselling author
  • Alan Alda – Actor, director, screenwriter, comedian and author
  • Marie Lu – #1 New York Timesbestselling author of the Legend
  • Dave Ursillo – Writer, author, yoga teacher

Course Instructors

Jennie Nash

Jennie Nash

Jennie Nash is the founder of Author Accelerator, a strategic book coaching service that offers the sustained editorial support writers need to complete their projects and make a powerful impact on their target audience.
Grant Faulkner

Grant Faulkner

Grant Faulkner is the Executive Director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and the co-founder of 100 Word Story.
Lisa Cron

Lisa Cron

Lisa Cron is a story coach and the author of Wired for Story: The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers From the Very First Sentence and Story Genius: How To Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages that Go Nowhere), both published by Ten Speed Press.
Andrea Askowitz

Andrea Askowitz

Andrea Askowitz is the author of the memoir My Miserable, Lonely, Lesbian Pregnancy (Cleis) and the editor of Badass: Lip Service True Stories, the Double Album (Lominy Books).
Michelle Tea

Michelle Tea

Michelle Tea is the author of over ten works of fiction, memoir, hybrid genre, spirituality, personal essay and poetry. She has edited anthologies on working class experience, personal narrative, queer fiction and fashion. Her writing has appeared in Harpers, Cosmopolitan, The Believer, Marie Claire, n+1, xoJane.com and many other print and web publications.
Dave Ursillo

Dave Ursillo

Dave Ursillo is a writer, 12-time author, teacher of yoga and self-expression, and story guide whose whole world revolves around creating containers for healing and transformation through the art of self-knowledge.
Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is a Designer/Writer in New York City (and Stonington, CT, and Palm Beach, FL). His book cover designs for Alfred A. Knopf, where he has worked non-stop since 1986, have helped create a revolution in the art of American book packaging.
Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin

Gretchen Rubin is the author of several books, including the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers, Better Than Before, The Happiness Project and Happier at Home.
Alan Alda

Alan Alda

Alan Alda has international recognition as an actor, writer and director. Has has been nominated for an Academy Award for The Aviator, Emmy nominated for his role on The West Wing, and has received 6 EMMYs.
Imbolo Mbue

Imbolo Mbue

IMBOLO MBUE is a native of the seaside town of Limbe, Cameroon. She holds a BS from Rutgers University and an MA from Columbia University. A resident of the United States for more than a decade, she lives in New York City.
John Hodgman

John Hodgman

JOHN HODGMAN is a writer, comedian, and actor. He is the author of three books of fake facts and invented trivia, all of them New York Times Bestsellers, and his writing has also appeared in The Paris Review, This American Life, The New Yorker, and Mad Magazine.
Delia Ephron

Delia Ephron

Bestselling author and screenwriter Delia Ephron's most recent novel is Siracusa. Her other novels include The Lion Is In and Hanging Up.
Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon

Nicola Yoon is the #1 NYT bestselling author of Everything, Everything, which is now a major motion picture, and The Sun Is Also a Star, a National Book Award finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor Book and Coretta Scott King New Talent Award winner. She grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los Angeles with her family.
Nathan Englander

Nathan Englander

Nathan Englander is the author of the collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, as well as the internationally bestselling story collection For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, and the novel The Ministry of Special Cases (all published by Knopf/Vintage).
Mary Pope Osborne

Mary Pope Osborne

Mary Pope Osborne is an ardent advocate and supporter of children’s literacy, and the award-winning author of more than 100 books for children and young adults, including novels, retellings of mythology and folklore, picture books, biographies, and mysteries.
Marie Lu

Marie Lu

Marie writes young adult novels and has a special love for dystopian books. Ironically, she was born in 1984. Before she became a full-time writer, she was an artist in the video game industry.
John Grisham

John Grisham

Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, he was working 60-70 hours a week at a small Southaven, Mississippi, law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby—writing his first novel.John Grisham as a child dr
Mayim Bialik

Mayim Bialik

Mayim Hoya Bialik is best known for her lead role as Blossom Russo in the early-1990s NBC television sitcom “Blossom” and now appears regularly on the #1 comedy in America, CBS’ “The Big Bang Theory” playing neurobiologist Amy Farrah Fowler, a role for which she has received one Screen Actors Guild nomination and four Emmy nominations.
Jane Green

Jane Green

Jane Green is the author of eighteen novels, of which seventeen are New York Times Bestsellers, including her latest, Falling Previous novels have included The Beach House, Second Chance, Jemima J, and Tempting Fate. She will be debuting her cookbook, Good Taste, on October 4th.
Kelly Corrigan

Kelly Corrigan

A gifted storyteller and talented interviewer, Kelly Corrigan has touched hearts and captured audiences with the themes of her three New York Times best-selling memoirs about family.
Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng is the author of the novel Everything I Never Told You, which was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Notable Book of 2014, Amazon’s #1 Best Book of 2014, and named a best book of the year by over a dozen publications.
RJ Palacio

RJ Palacio

For many years, RJ was an art director and book jacket designer, designing covers for countless well-known writers in every genre of fiction and nonfiction. RJ always wanted to write, though.
Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood

Ms. Atwood’s reviews and critical articles have appeared in Canadian Literature, Maclean’s, Saturday Night, This Magazine, New York Times Book Review, The Globe and Mail, The National Post, The Toronto Star, The Nation, Books In Canada, The Washington Post, The Harvard Educational Review, and many others.
  • Mary K. Aug 2, 2025

    Excellent!

  • paincenter S. Apr 9, 2025

    too good

  • Eileen S. Nov 11, 2024

    Too good. Lisa nails it.

  • Charlotte R. Aug 29, 2024

    I am so glad I took this course! I have been writing novels as a hobby for decades and never felt able to take it to a new level. Everything she talked about made so much sense and has given me a whole new perspective! I am finally unstuck on a particular project and am excited to start writing the story now! THANK YOU Lisa!

  • Monica D. Aug 27, 2024

    I feel empowered to write now. Everything else I have read about writing intimidated me. I could NOT SEE the process they were teaching. But this made so much sense, very foundational! I could envision the process. I highly recommend this course and supplemental guide. I wish I could ask of the books I pick up to read, "Did the author take this course? because I don't want to waste my time reading this book unless they did!"

  • Trish G. Jun 4, 2024

    Fantastic class. I learned more in under three hours than I have in untold books and workshops. Highly recommended. I would have really liked a downloadable scene card that I could print out to use though, but I can knock one out on excel to carry around and ask the questions and make notes on it while I think. Ms. Cron's class Wired For Story was also excellent. I highly recommend both. I wish I'd learned these things ages about, I might have been published already. All this time I thought it was me, that I just couldn't figure out how story worked and what I was doing wrong, why I always wrote myself into a corner - it was because everyone else teaching it doesn't seem to understand how story actually works either and pass on the misinformation. I find that terrifying for some reason.

  • mariekfrench . May 10, 2024

    This has been the best writing class I have ever taken and I want to say Thank you, Lisa Cron! You helped me make sense of story and helped me find my way back to writing. I was almost ready to give up… because I could not understand how to tell a story. Thanks to you. I’m ready to try yet again! Xo Marie

  • Jennifer . Apr 22, 2024

    Lisa is so compelling! I am not a writer and did not intend to study writing but I can not seem to stop listening to her class... highly recommend this course for anyone interested in story-telling.

  • Suresh V. Apr 9, 2024

    This course is essential. I started writing and did not know what a scene was. When does a scene start and when does it end? I asked this question in a writing class and people looked at me as if I was stupid. Turns out they don't know either. My understanding of how to tell a story has come along in leaps and bounds. Thank you Lisa.

  • Suresh V. Apr 9, 2024

    Lisa is the Genius here. She has helped me so much with how to tell a story. I highly recommend this class.

  • Jennifer D. Nov 26, 2023

    I have been writing - and listening to writing teachers - for years and Lisa Cron is the first person who has laid out the structure of story so that story writing now seems possible!! Bravo!!

  • Kristl F. Sep 25, 2023

    Loved it. Great teacher!

  • Karima B. Oct 18, 2022

    It was very beneficial and I learned a lot from it.

  • Vickie M. Jul 29, 2022

    Totally changed my way of writing.

  • Jym S. May 3, 2022

    Lisa Cron really has an excellent way of demonstrating the why of storytelling. Highly recommended

  • Brooke M. Apr 4, 2022

    Love this course and, so far, all of Lisa Cron's courses!

  • Brooke M. Apr 4, 2022

    I LOVED this class! I had what I thought was a pretty strong idea developed for a novel I'm writing, but this course had me really thinking through the purpose of story and diving deep into the point I wanted to be making with my story. It was fun to follow along with the exercises and I was able to take my original idea and deepen it into something meaningful and dimensional. I would HIGHLY recommmend! I will probably retake the course when I am writing other novels!

  • Kate T. Jan 18, 2022

    I now know enough about Lisa Cron to seize and devour every book, interview, article and class she comes out with. She's an extraordinary teacher who cuts through the most daunting writing issues and hands students the knowledge and the encouragement they need. Thank you, Lisa!

  • Kate T. Jan 15, 2022

    Awesome -- Lisa Cron is the best writing teacher I've ever had the pleasure of reading/watching. And I majored in comp lit! :) Thank you Lisa!

  • Deb G. Jan 2, 2022

    Impressed! Lisa's storytelling approach makes so much sense to me and so refreshingly different to the expected 'generic writing structure’. Great delivery, easy to listen to and understand. Thank you.

  • Dusti A. Dec 28, 2021

    I learned more about writing from this course than I did over the past decade. Stunning, informative, imminently useful.

  • Alexandra A. Dec 16, 2021

    Hands down the best class about how to tell a good story that I've ever encountered. My story-telling life has been immeasurably changed for the better because of what Lisa Cron teaches. Highly, highly recommended.

  • Jacquelyn D. Nov 13, 2021

    A friend of mine recommended this class to me and I'm so glad she did! Now I know exactly how to reorganize my first chapter!

  • Kate T. Oct 14, 2021

    Lisa Cron's class and the book she wrote about writing -- "Story Genius" -- is the best fiction teaching I've ever experienced. This is a great, great class and Lisa is an inspired teacher. Thank you!

  • Helen S. Aug 22, 2021

    As a pantser, I try to not get angry at the lack of respect for differences in how people write. There are many best-selling pantsers, just as there are hybrid writers who do both. There is no one way to write, and no one correct way to write. That said, for a pantser like myself, this class and handouts will be useful after I've written the story and am engaged in the revision phase.

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